Hi there. Not sure if anyone will really read this but I figured I'd write something anyway, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf so to speak. I'm caught in a vicious cycle, I suffer from depression and I can't figure out if I'm depressed because I'm overweight or overweight because I'm depressed...? Any thoughts? Regardless, I know I need to do something different so I found FitDay in an online search and decided..why not? My goal is to drop twenty pounds by July (unrealistic?). I weigh 165 now. Most of my life I've been fit but since having kids...well, I'm sure you know how that is. My confessions (or perhaps my faults): I eat terribly, don't excersize and take anti-depressants. I should be a lot happier than I am on a day to day basis...I'm willing to make changes but lack encouragement. Any cheerleaders out there? I'll cheer for you if you cheer for me...Rah, rah, shisk, boom, ba! You can do it... Ok, I'm off to fire up the WII fit...go me!

Well hello and welcome aboard, this is a great place to come for motivation and encouragement. I am confused by your comment that you eat terribly, don't work out and take anti-depressants, but you think you should be happier? When I eat like crap and don't work out I feel like absolute poo too, and anti depressants only really keep you from feeling completely down in the dumps, they don't make you happy. In fact a good friend of mine was on them for years and years, and the whole time she would smile at funny things, but she never laughed until about 3 days after she stopped taking them. She's convinced that the meds kept her evened out, so she wasn't sad but they kept her from being happy as well. Although I don't advocate going off your meds without discussing it with your doctor first, and designing an exit plan.

Making changes for the better is hard, very hard. Just take it in baby steps, one little step at a time. One of the best things I've discovered is that a healthy mom = healthy kids. My kids went into the whole "healthy" thing with a bit of kicking and screaming, but they are totally on board now. In fact my oldest DD gave up "sweets" for Lent, and now that it's over she's decided to only eat 1 "sweet" per day and no more. Our middle child is tracking her exercise and trying to make sure she gets 1 1/2 hours of "fun like recess time" every day. And our youngest is totally funny, she'll ask for candy and before I can say "no", she'll say something like "oh wait, it's almost dinner time and we don't eat candy for dinner, nevermind mom".

I know anti-depressants save lives, and make people functional, they should exist, and they should be used when needed.

My story may help. Six years ago, I couldn't stop crying, there were a lot of real life reasons for that, but I went for help. After a meeting and a checklist I left with a prescription for Prozac. I was walking down the street (crying, because that's what I did then), and I noticed that there was new "Contours" opening right by my office. (Contours is a generic version of Curves), I walked in and signed up. I'm not sure why, I'm not sure who was holding my hand and pulling out the credit card, but I thought - "let's try this before the Prozac". I never filled the prescription. This isn't to say its not right for some people, but for me, taking this specific step of discipline led to many other steps, and 50 pounds later, I haven't cried in months.

I wish you well on your journey, and will be happy to cheer for you, as long as I don't have to climb up a pyramid!

I have been struggling with my weight for too long now. Although I am in the BMI normal range, I still feel stocky and I just can't get those 10-15 pounds off.

I am looking into the whole self-compassion thing. The idea is that if you are kind and compassionate to yourself, it is easier to lose weight. There have actually been some scientific studies which support this. I am currently going through a book called "The Self-Compassion Diet", which contains guided meditations about self-esteem and weight loss. I also read another book called "Feel Good Naked: 10 No-Diet Secrets to a Fabulous Body" which gives several suggestions for feeling better about ones body. I think all of these are similar to "Women, Food and God", but I haven't read that book yet.

I know this all sounds a little wacky, but it certainly can't hurt to improve self-esteem and body image.